Enviro: AmeriScan for August 13, 1999
Mark Graffis
The National Governors Association (NGA), representing the governors
of all 50 states, has adopted a land use policy that emphasizes open
space preservation and promotes planned growth. "Principles for Better
Land Use," was approved Tuesday at the annual summer meeting of the
NGA. As the 1999 Chair of NGA's Natural Resources Committee, Maryland
Governor Parris Glendening initiated and promoted the policy change.
"By adopting these Smart Growth principles, the governors have
recognized the need for states to figure out how best to use their
remaining land while preserving and protecting the environment," said
Glendening. "There are better ways to accommodate growth than to spend
government money subsidizing the development of our natural resources
and creating urban sprawl. These guiding principles included in our
new policy encourage more sustainable growth." The 10 principles
encourage state and local governments to:
* Mix land uses
* Take advantage of existing community assets
* Create a range of housing opportunities and choices
* Foster "walkable" close-knit neighborhoods
* Promote distinctive communities with a strong sense of place,
rehabilite and use historic buildings
* Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical
environmental areas
* Strengthen and encourage growth in existing communities
* Provide a variety of transportation choices
* Make development decisions predictable, fair and cost-effective
* Encourage citizen and stakeholder participation in development
decisions
* * *
PETITIONS FOR Y2K PRECAUTIONS AT NUCLEAR PLANTS DENIED
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has denied three petitions from the
Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS), a Washington, DC based
nuclear watchdog group, on Year 2000 computer problem (Y2K) concerns
at NRC licensed nuclear facilities. The NRC says actions already taken
to address Y2K issues provide "reasonable assurance of adequate
protection of public health and safety." The first NIRS petition
requested that all licensed facilities - nuclear power plants,
decommissioned nuclear plants, research reactors, and fuel cycle
facilities - should be shut down by December 1 if their safety systems
are not "Y2K compliant" and should remain shut down until all Y2K
modifications and testing are completed. The NRC denied this petition
because it says safety systems needed for the safe operation and safe
shutdown of U.S. nuclear plants are Y2K ready. The second NIRS
petition requested that the Commission require nuclear power plant
licensees to conduct a successful, full-scale emergency planning
exercise involving the failure of computers or other digital systems
as a result of the Y2K problem, or shut down by December 1. The NRC
denied this petition saying previous emergency exercises covered the
same potential problems. The NRC has scheduled a Y2K exercise in
October with several utilities to test Y2K contingency plans. The
third petition requested NRC to require that nuclear facilities have
emergency diesel generators with a 60 day fuel supply to provide
backup power during the Y2K transition, and have alternate renewable
means of backup power available. The NRC denied this petition saying
current regulations require sufficient redundant backup power sources
of onsite emergency power. More on the NRC's decisions is available
at: [20]http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/COMMISSION/activities.html.
* * *
UN TEAM HEADS TO MITSUBISHI SALTWORKS SITE
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) is sending a World Heritage team to Baja California, Mexico,
to investigate the environmental impact of the proposed Mitsubishi
salt plant. The Mitsubishi Corporation, in partnership with the
Mexican government, plans to build the world's largest saltworks in
Laguna San Ignacio, on the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. Laguna
San Ignacio was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, and is
the last pristine birthing lagoon for the Pacific gray whale as well
as home to many endangered species of plants and wildlife. The goal of
the World Heritage Committee mission is to evaluate whether
Mitsubishi's saltwork plans threaten the conservation of this
biosphere reserve. A proposal to give this area even greater
protection and declare it a World Heritage In Danger is now being
considered. UNESCO team members Mechuld Rossler, Cipirano Marin
Cabrera, Randall Reeves, and Pedro Manuel Rosabal Gonzalez, will be in
Mexico from August 23 to 28. Their itinerary includes site surveys at
Guerrero Negro, where a salt evaporation plant is now operating, and
Laguna San Ignacio, the controversial proposed site for the new plant.
* * *
GROCERY CHAIN BANS THREATENED FISH
Wild Oats, a grocery chain with more than 75 stores nationwide, will
no longer sell north Atlantic swordfish, marlin, orange roughy or
Chilean sea bass because of plummeting populations due to overfishing
and indiscriminate fishing tactics. "Future fish dinners rely on
well-managed fish populations. Wild Oats recognizes this and is taking
proactive steps to apply market pressure in favor of conservation,"
said Paul Gingerich, meat and seafood purchasing director of Wild
Oats. The north Atlantic swordfish population is at the lowest level
ever recorded. The average swordfish caught in the north Atlantic
today is one third the size caught 30 years ago. The amount of east
and Gulf coast landings has declined by more than half since 1989, and
the recreational fishery is almost extinct. "When a major chain like
Wild Oats takes this kind of strong action, it sends a clear message
to the government: you, too, must take strong action and secure a
recovery plan that will make it possible for us to carry this fish
into the future. We hope the U.S. government and other swordfish
fishing nations are up to the challenge," said Lisa Speer, co-chair of
the "Give Swordfish a Break" campaign and senior policy analyst at the
Natural Resources Defense Council. Wild Oats will educate customers
with an in-store fact sheet, "A Too True Fish Tale."
* * *
WATER AGREEMENT PROMOTES LONG TERM PLANNING
State, federal and tribal water managers in central Washington signed
a landmark agreement Wednesday pledging to work as partners when
making water management decisions in the Yakima River Basin. The
Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology), the Yakima Nation
and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) reached the pact after
almost two years of negotiations to resolve outstanding legal cases
and other crucial water resource issues in the region. "Rather than
continuing a cycle of lawsuits and disagreements over how water is
managed, we all decided to sit down at the same table and work this
out," said Ecology director Tom Fitzsimmons. The three major water
managers will launch a $6 million study to learn more about the link
between the Yakima River system and the region's groundwater aquifers.
While the study is under way, Ecology will hold off on making
groundwater permit decisions. Within five years, the agencies want a
detailed groundwater model that, combined with existing information,
will provide the technical data needed to make groundwater permit
decisions and to manage transfers of existing water rights. "As water
managers, we're faced with myriad challenges," said Fitzsimmons. "We
all want more water, but we also have to protect senior water rights.
And on top of that, we need to set aside more water in rivers and
streams for fish."
* * *
EPA CITES 36 COMPANIES FOR CFC VIOLATIONS
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken enforcement
action against 36 companies in the Southeast through the
Chlorofluorocarbons Motor Vehicle Air Conditioner (MVAC) initiative
under the Federal Clean Air Act. Contract inspectors from EPA
Headquarters inspected motor vehicle air conditioner shops in Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. Companies were
cited for a range of violations that include:
* failure to certify the acquisition and proper use of approved
motor vehicle air conditioner equipment
* the use of an unacceptable alternative refrigerant in an MVAC
system
* venting of a refrigerant to the atmosphere during the disposal of
an appliance
* the use of improperly trained and certified personnel
John Hankinson, Jr., EPA regional administrator in Atlanta, said,
"These enforcement actions reflect the agency's commitment to ensuring
compliance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act to protect human
health and the environment. The environmental threat from CFCs is
serious and well-documented; therefore, EPA will aggressively enforce
the laws regulating their use." The citations require each facility to
comply with the regulations governing the use of ozone depleting CFCs
in servicing air conditioners in motor vehicles. Eleven companies that
received Administrative Penalty Orders must also pay a fine.
* * *
WEBSITES OFFER INFORMATION ON FISH, PESTICIDES, TOXINS
The EPA made information available to the public this week on the
safety of eating fish, working with pesticides, and living near
industrial sites. The EPAs national list of fish advisories offers a
searchable database of fish consumption warnings across the nation and
in 12 Canadian provinces. Anglers can check if the fish they catch are
safe to eat at: [21]http://www.epa.gov/ost/fish. EPA has created a new
web site to provide farm workers, certified pesticide applicators, and
health care providers with information on the EPAs pesticide safety
programs. The web site, accessible in English and Spanish, provides
specific information on EPA's Worker Protection Standard, including
pesticide safety training, notification of pesticide applications, use
of personal protective equipment and emergency medical assistance. The
site is available at: [22]http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/safety. The
North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), with
the EPA and the Canadian environment ministry, has released the third
annual "Taking Stock" Report, which provides an international picture
of the releases and transfers for waste management of toxic chemicals
by industrial facilities. The report analyzes data from the U.S.
right-to-know program, the Toxics Release Inventory, and the Canadian
right-to-know program, the National Pollutant Release Inventory.
Through this report, the public can learn how different industrial
sectors, chemicals, or states and provinces compare across the U.S.
and Canada. For more information, the public can access the CEC's
Internet site at: [23]http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/npri and at:
[24]http://www.cec.org. Information on the U.S. TRI program can be
found at: [25]http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/tri.
* * *
WHEN A TREE FALLS, CARBON DIOXIDE RISES
When a tree is cut down or burned, the carbon in the wood is
transferred to the atmosphere as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
Scientists reported Wednesday that the vegetation lost to logging,
burning and agriculture throughout human history transferred about 180
billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere. Christopher Field, a
Carnegie Institution of Washington biologist and coauthor of the
study, says the amount of carbon emitted from land use changes is
about 75 percent of the carbon emitted from fossil fuel burning.
"There has been a huge loss of carbon from the world's ecosystem over
the time that humans have been involved in agriculture, and this loss
has intensified terrifically in the last few centuries," said Field.
The study by Fields and Ruth DeFries, a University of Maryland
geographer, used an "untouched-by-human-hands" model of the Earth's
vegetation cover, and compared the model to data collected by National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association satellites. "We take into
account existing vegetation and compare it to our best guess of what
the Earth would be like if humans did not disturb the landscape," said
DeFries. The largest amount of carbon loss, about 70 billion tons,
came from Asia. North America, Europe and Africa have lost between 20
and 30 billion tons each. Today, a variety of practices are helping to
generate plant growth and take up carbon dioxide during
photosynthesis. But, Field warned, new studies show that the carbon
dioxide taken up by regrowing forests can't possibly compensate for
the amount that humans are currently adding to the atmosphere. "It's
not going to grow us out of the carbon problem," he said.
* * *
INTRODUCED BUGS FAIL TO CONTROL KNAPWEED
Knapweed, an invasive exotic plant causing big economic problems and
resource management headaches across the western half of North
America, is not controlled effectively by the insects introduced to
combat it, scientists reported Wednesday. More than a dozen kinds of
insects native to Eurasia have been introduced to manage knapweed
since 1970. Land managers assume that the insects will reduce the
competition of knapweed with the native plants that surround it.
Researchers B.A. Newingham and R.M. Callaway of the University of
Montana looked at how well the cabbage looper affects knapweed's
suppression of two native grasses, Idaho fescue and rough fescue. They
discovered that that the looper had a minimal effect on the size of
the knapweeds, and insects eating knapweed did not help the native
grasses. In fact, the presence of native grasses enhanced the regrowth
of knapweed after insects ate the pesky plant. "This may mean that the
biocontrols we are releasing all over the place are having no effect,
or worse, they might even be giving knapweed more of a competitive
advantage," Callaway says. "We need to know a lot more about how
communities actually work before we release many more nonnative
species into our environment." The study was presented at the
Ecological Society of America's annual meeting in Spokane, Washington.
* * *
VOLUNTEERS BUILD WASHINGTON WASTEWATER PLANT
The tiny town of Starbuck in Eastern Washington has built a new
wastewater treatment plant with about half the money it was projected
to cost, using volunteer labor from the towns own residents. Starbuck,
located on the Tucannon River, has about 100 homes, many with failing,
or non-existent, septic systems. The treatment plant project was
estimated to cost between $1.5 million and $1.8 million using
conventional construction. Because the town had only $900,000 to
spend, it solicited volunteer help to complete the project within that
budget. The town finished the wastewater treatment facility with
volunteer labor and help from Cougar Ridge prison inmates. Now it is
beginning to construct a collection system, using volunteers alone. So
far, volunteers have laid about a mile of pipeline, and have two more
miles to go. The U.S. Forest Service and the state's Community Block
Grant Program funded the project. The Washington Department of Ecology
provided technical assistance through its small town environmental
program.